Never have games players had it so good. While game concepts will never actually improve, the means to express them has certainly come a long way since the unreliable tape-based days of the ZX81 . Over the last eight years, home computers have slowly but surely got bigger and better, with more colours, more memory, better sound and faster processors, allowing ideas to be put into practice which were previously impossible to express. The established 8-bit machines seem to be on the way out, making way for the new breed of games machines — and new magazines...

The One is about 16-bit games and beyond. We aim to provide an authoritative monthly guide to 16-bit games, with as much information as possible presented in an easily digested form. The reviews will invariably occupy two or more pages, which gives us room to concentrate more on the visual side of things to convey the feel of a game better than reams of text ever could. The games then begin to speak for themselves, allowing us to explain more easily and effectively how they play by means of detailed captions or annotations. The main body of text describes briefly how the game in question works, while the ST, Amiga and PC comments and ratings are there to inform you of the games' good and bad points.

The GRAPHICS and SOUND ratings reflect more than just quality of aesthetics, taking into consideration how well, say, animation, music and sound effects are used. PLAYABILITY shows how accessible and enjoyable to play a game is, bearing in mind the type of game under scrutiny. For example, you could quite easily have a strategy game which is just as playable as a straightforward shoot'em up. The potential lasting value of a piece of software is taken into consideration with VALUE, while OVERALL serves to provide an instant comparison rating. We take 5O% as a strict average, with anything good around 60%. very good 70%, great 80% and brilliant 90% or so upwards. 100% is perfect, and we won't be dishing out too many of those...

Chats with the programmers will be included where possible, to familiarise you with the faces behind the games, along with some simple tips to get you started and any other snippets of relevant information.

Sure, some of the reviews in this issue don't quite fall into this ideal, but there are invariably teething problems with a launch of a new magazine, so rest assured that these will have sorted themselves out after a few issues.

It's all very well knowing which games are worthy of your attention, but what about help with playing them! Each month The One will feature plenty of general tips, along with a detailed four page players guide to a game which requires the attention.